Abstract
A comparison was made between the effect of sodium ferrous citrate (SFC) and a heme iron preparation (HIP) for treatment of rats with iron deficiency anemia (Hb 4.5-4.9g/dl) induced by repeated bloodletting. HIP was prepared by proteinase treatment of livestock hemoglobin. During 16 days of treatment, the anemic rats received either of the iron sources at 1 or 5 mg/kg body weight daily through a stomach catheter, or were fed on iron-poor diets with no iron supplement for the same period. At the end of iron administration, the best recovery score was observed in the group given SFC at 5 mg Fe/kg, as recognized by gains in Hb (Δ7.2±0.3g/dl) and Ht (Δ23.9±1.1%), and HRE (hemoglobin rege-neration efficiency, 25.98±4.51%), transferrin saturation (25.0±4.0%) and liver nonheme iron (391±65μg/head). These values were significantly higher than those in both the controls and the group given HIP at 5mg Fe/kg. The values in the latter group were ΔHb 1.6g/dl, ΔHt 9.0%, HRE 5.28%, transferrin saturation 6% and liver nonheme iron 184μg/head, which were similar to the values in the group given SFC at 1 mg Fe/kg. We observed that SFC iron was better utilized than HIP iron for recovery of anemia in iron-deficient rats.
